I'm wondering if there will be a difference in sound out of my components in
the front of my car if I give them alot more power. I am giving them 50 watts
a piece right now, but if I bridged the 4 front channels of my Hifonics 5
channel amp they would get 160 a piece.... They sound good right now, and go
plenty loud for me... I'm wondering if giving them the 160 a piece will have
any audible affect other than loudness. I mean... would it help the midbass
out at all to have more power? Or would it just give me plenty of headroom and
not alot more? I'm just debating whether or not I want to run my third set of
RCA's and use the extra power I have available.

Nick

I'm wondering if there will be a difference in sound out of my components
in
the front of my car if I give them alot more power. I am giving them 50
watts
a piece right now, but if I bridged the 4 front channels of my Hifonics 5
channel amp they would get 160 a piece.... They sound good right now, and
go
plenty loud for me... I'm wondering if giving them the 160 a piece will
have
any audible affect other than loudness. I mean... would it help the
midbass
out at all to have more power? Or would it just give me plenty of
headroom and
not alot more? I'm just debating whether or not I want to run my third
set of
RCA's and use the extra power I have available.

You'll add more headroom by increasing power. But if you're not clipping
now, there won't be a difference. However, it can be difficult to determine
if you're clipping or not.

As for more midbass, you're going to want to play with tuning some. This
may end up requiring more power if, for instance, you want to turn up your
midbass driver gains.

And then again, sometimes people just want more than they need so they never
have to worry about it.

You'll add more headroom by increasing power. But if you're not clipping
now, there won't be a difference. However, it can be difficult to determine
if you're clipping or not.

With all the talk in here about clipping lately, this has me concerned. I
believe my speakers are rated at 100 watts rms, and right now I'm giving them
50.. so I'm concerned that maybe I am clipping at times and am unaware of it...
I figure I have this extra power available, and then I wouldn't have to worry
about it.

As for more midbass, you're going to want to play with tuning some. This
may end up requiring more power if, for instance, you want to turn up your
midbass driver gains.

In order to turn up just the midbass gains, I'd have to bi amp my components,
correct? I've actually thought about doing that, but I have no clue how to
hook it up.. and I'm not real sure it would be beneficial or not. I think I
could do it with my amp, but I don't know if it would be better than just
giving them sufficient power together.

Nick

You'll add more headroom by increasing power. But if you're not clipping
now, there won't be a difference. However, it can be difficult to
determine
if you're clipping or not.

With all the talk in here about clipping lately, this has me concerned. I
believe my speakers are rated at 100 watts rms, and right now I'm giving
them
50.. so I'm concerned that maybe I am clipping at times and am unaware of
it...
I figure I have this extra power available, and then I wouldn't have to
worry
about it.

There's nothing to worry about anyway. If you can't hear distortion, then
it's unimportant. If you can hear distortion, then you'll want to first
figure out the cause of the distortion (which is usually either clipping or
the speaker bottoming out) and then fix the problem.


As for more midbass, you're going to want to play with tuning some. This
may end up requiring more power if, for instance, you want to turn up
your
midbass driver gains.

In order to turn up just the midbass gains, I'd have to bi amp my
components,
correct?

Yes. Or adjust the high-pass crossover if you're using one. Other than
that, you could use an eq, make sure the midbass driver installation is
top-notch, or even play with the sub a little.

I've actually thought about doing that, but I have no clue how to
hook it up.. and I'm not real sure it would be beneficial or not. I think
I
could do it with my amp, but I don't know if it would be better than just
giving them sufficient power together.

It can be beneficial if you want added tuning capabilities. There are no
true advantages to it otherwise.

It can be beneficial if you want added tuning capabilities. There are no
true advantages to it otherwise.


Doesn't the perceived(correct word??) power increases?

full range 400 watt amp produces the same acoustical output thru a speaker
as 2 100w amps bi-ampin' the same speaker?

Doesn't the perceived(correct word??) power increases?

full range 400 watt amp produces the same acoustical output thru a speaker
as 2 100w amps bi-ampin' the same speaker?

The actual power can in fact increase. But it's generally a minor increase
though, because the amount of power that the tweeter consumes is relatively
small. Depending on the crossover frequency and the spectral content of the
music, it's usually on the order of approximately 1/10th the power that the
woofer consumes. As a result, the additional power is quite small because
you're essentially redirecting that extra 1/10th to the woofer when you're
biamping. In fact, sometimes you LOSE power when biamping. For example, if
you biamp with a 4-channel amp, you lose a substantial amount of power
compared to bridging the amp and running the set off the bridged channels.
So there's often a tradeoff.

On the other hand, biamping 3-way component sets is much easier because you
don't have a "loss" of power. That is, the woofer channels and the
midrange/tweeter channels require a roughly similar amount of power.